Geographic Nomenclature. 271 
Owing to the number of languages and alphabets in use in the 
Indian empire, the orthography of its geographic names has for a 
long time been in controversy. As we see from the “ British 
System,” the Royal Geographical Society has decided to spell 
Indian names in accordance with “ Hunters’ Imperial Gazetteer of 
India,” a decision which, in view of the fact that the spelling in 
the Gazetteer is not always in harmony with the adopted rules, is 
to be regretted. But we can at the same time understand the 
difficulties of the situation, and appreciate the strong love of the 
British for old forms and long usage. The differences between 
the system and the Gazetteer are, however, not radical, since the 
continental vowel system is followed; still, it would be just as easy 
to write Kalkutta, Kutch, ete., for Caleutta, Cutch, etc., as it is 
to write Korea for Corea, and thus be consistent with the rules. 
Geographic names in Malay and its branches we know mainly 
through Dutch, British and Spanish surveyors, and their status 
may be judged from the prefatory remarks in Maxwell’s grammar 
of Malay, published in 1882, wherein he says, that the spelling of 
Malay words in the native character is hardly yet fixed, though 
the Perso-Arabic alphabet has been in use since the 13th century, 
and that those follow but a vain shadow who seek to prescribe 
exact modes of spelling words, regarding which even native 
authorities are not agreed, and of which the pronunciation may 
vary according to locality. 
On the charts published by the Batavian Hydrographic Ofitice, 
the Malay names are rendered in accordance with the Dutch pho- 
netic system of transliteration (only that the sound of g is always 
hard) and as this differs from the British phonetic system in sev- 
eral particulars, it is clear that certain corrections must be applied 
to the spelling of “ Dutch” Malay names to facilitate the approxi- 
mately correct pronunciation of such names by English speaking 
peoples. But a source of trouble is the. seeming uncertainty of 
the Batavian geographers themselves in regard to the orthography 
of many names, since it is a frequent occurrence to find the same 
names variously rendered on charts, or in sailing directions issued. 
at short intervals of time. 
We can see, from what has been said above, that chances for 
disagreement in the rendering of geographic names, originating 
in countries that do not use the Roman alphabet for their litera- 
ture, are numerous, and hence, the occurrence of errors in the 
application of a new system should not be too harshly con- 
